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Guðbjartur Hannesson - Iceland's Minister for Welfare

Guðbjartur Hannesson is Iceland's new minister in charge of merging all welfare issues into one ministry. He must do this while the country's budget is cut to the bone in the wake of the 2008 crash which left the country's economy in ruins. The Ministry of Welfare must be up and running by the end of the year.
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From head teacher to politician

Guðbjartur Hannesson was born in 1950 in Akranes, a fishing town in South-west Iceland, some 50km from the capital Reykjavik.

He has just been appointed Minister of Social Affairs and Health in the coalition government comprising the Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green Movement. From next year he will be Minister of Welfare when the two departments merge.

Guðbjartur Hannesson was elected to Iceland's parliament (the Allting) for the Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin) in 2007. He trained as a teacher in Iceland, Denmark and England. He was head teacher at a primary school in his home town of Akranes, where he also served as municipal councillor between 1986 and 1998.

He was on the board of Landsbankinn (the national bank) between 1998 and 2003 and of Heritable Bank in London from 2002 to 2003. Hannesson is married to work therapist Sigrún Ásmundsdóttir. They have two daughters.

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